Many accountants and bookkeepers are not getting paid what they are worth. The results of the 2018 Intuit Average Billing Rate Survey (the Survey) can be eye opening and helps to know more about industry averages.
The Survey was conducted by myself (Michelle L Long, CPA) and Heather Satterley, EA with Intuit’s assistance including providing the awesome interactive results. We had over 1,000 accountants, bookkeepers, consultants, tax professionals, etc. who completed the survey this year. The survey asked questions about hourly billing rates, fixed fee rates, primary source of new clients, why clients are not on the cloud yet and more. Best of all, the Survey results can help you get paid what you are worth and increase your rates! For example, did you know:
- Average billing rates are higher for QuickBooks training/consulting, training and IT consulting compared to accounting/bookkeeping rates
- Certified ProAdvisors average billing rate is 20% higher than those who are not certified. Plus, Advanced Certified ProAdvisors average rate is another 24% increase for a total of 46% higher rates compared to those who are not certified. (All you need is to invest time to get Certified! The QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor Program, training, certification and more is all FREE! Details here: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accountants/proadvisor/#compare
- Hourly billing has decreased 35% and value pricing has increased 56% since 2016.
- What is the average hourly rate for your state (results for most states in the U.S. and Canadian average rate)
- What is the average rate by designation (bookkeeper, accountant, CPA, Certified Bookkeeper, EA and more)
- And more!
Take a few minutes and check out the survey results! The results are provided and discussed in several different sources:
- Interactive tool — really cool graphics and allows you to drill down on many results.
- Articles — with insights and comments plus some results that are not provided in the interactive tool.
- QB Power Hour recording with discussion and comments about many of the results: https://youtu.be/QoKAPIPDYXc
I hope the Survey results help you with setting and increasing your own billing rates! Remember, the results are averages.
To your success!
Michelle L. Long
I still have many clients on Desktop who will not be candidates for QBO and others that just don’t like QBO – I think that they should have retained the Advanced QB Desktop for this reason. Unless there are major changes to QBO to beef up functionality and make it easier to use for accountants, I can’t see this changing.
QBO is suitable for many small businesses — especially with 3rd party apps. There is an app for almost everything! Plus, with the time savings in increased efficiency and streamlining workflows, it is well worth it! Would you prepare tax returns without tax prep software? No way right? Tax prep software is a power tool for accounting professionals which allows them to do more tax returns efficiently and increase revenues & profits. Well worth the money! That’s the same as QBO and 3rd party apps! Many small businesses are already converting to QBO and choosing QBO vs desktop about 2-1. The industry is already changing rapidly to online / cloud based systems.
I would recommend you join the ProAdvisor Program (http://bit.ly/pap_join) – it is free for QBO. You get QBO Accountant free, certification training, support, etc. for FREE! Based on my experience and many others who I’ve given the challenge — to learn more about QBO, learn the navigating tips (http://bit.ly/QBOTips) and use it for a couple of weeks. I bet you’ll change you opinion about QBO. Thousands and thousands of other accounting professionals are now certified in QBO and using it with clients. Give it a try.
Michelle,
What are your thoughts on the discontinuation of the Advanced Certification?
I think it is ok especially since there is an Advanced Certification for QuickBooks Online. I think the QBO Adv Cert is easier to pass too. 🙂
Thank you so much for putting this study together. It is very insightful and much appreciated.